Entrepreneurship education and economic growth

The joint interest in disseminating an entrepreneurial mindset to the students even before graduation has led to cooperation between VIA University College and the Central Denmark Region to support entrepreneurship in the Professional Bachelor's degree programmes at VIA University College.This paper addresses the presumptions behind the project. The presumptions in relation to entrepreneurship demonstrate that the effort should target both growth entrepreneurs and SMEs in a wide sense; there is a need for growth entrepreneurs with ambitions to generate breakthrough innovation as well as the many others with more modest ambitions about incremental innovation. In relation to education and training this concerns the combination of curricular and non-curricular activities.Entrepreneurship teaching must be realised in close cooperation with the degree programmes and should focus on both entrepreneurial skills and competencies.The teaching should be experimental and incorporate entrepreneurial practice. These presumptions already form an integral part of existing activities such as the UCT week and the new advanced studies programme in entrepreneurship. They will also be embodied in the student entrepreneurship centres to be established at each of the seven campuses, which is the project's main focus